About Me

I worked at the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto for 10 years, until it closed in 2014. During my time there I planned themed endcaps and did author interview displays.
From September 2010 until December 2012 I contributed book reviews and New Author Spotlight posts to SF Signal. From August 2013 to May 2014 I did a Recommended Reading with Professionals column there once or twice a month.
I've got a BA in Medieval History from the University of Toronto.
I'm a long time crafter and have been card crafting for a few years, first using photos I took and now using lots of stamps and fun embellishments.
Contact me at:
jessica.strider (at) gmail (dot) com

Book Review Requests

Due to the number of books I get from publishers and the piles of books I've owned for years and don't have time to read, I turn down most review requests. If your project really interests me I'll give it a shot, but I reserve the right to stop reading at any point if I don't like it. I simply don't have time to finish books I'm not enjoying. If I finish a book I generally review it and will send you the links. Positive reviews get posted on my blog, GoodReads, LibraryThing and Amazon Canada. Negative reviews only show up on my blog.

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

I was wandering the aisles looking at book covers a few days ago and it hit me how many books are getting female armour right nowadays. Yes, there are still submissive covers and covers with highly impractical armour, but there's also a surprising number of covers with really good female armour.

Here are some examples I found for fantasy. Notice how, though several of the women look sexy, they also look competent and are mostly covered by their armour, which is either metal or leather depending on the book.

And for military SF. Sure, none of them are wearing helmets, but aside from the woman on the cover of Ragnarok (who has a headset and thereby might not get a helmet) it's easy to imagine them putting helmets on before heading off to the fight. Whatever army outfitted these women so practically will have helmets for them too.

I found the military SF covers alternated showing women (and quite often men) in tank tops and in armour. I can't imagine anyone going into battle wearing a tank top, so it's nice to see some properly outfitted women heading off to war.

If you want to see more pictures of good fantasy armour, check out Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor. The guy who runs the site realizes that armour isn't entirely for practical purposes (something Una the Blade points out with regards to the often impractical armour worn by men in ages past). For more information on what goes into making female fantasy armour, here's a post by an armorer.

And for anyone who hasn't seen this yet, because it's awesome, College Humor's "Female Armor Sucks".